Ode to my VW

It is official.  I have officially sold my 2001.5 VW Passat.  I handed the title over yesterday and as I was driving off the lot, tears streamed down my face.  This was not the first time I cried over the sale of my car. I even cried as we drove to LOOK at other cars.  I don't think most people are attached to their cars quite like I was/am.

I remember seeing this beautiful silver Passat at Car Wars at War Memorial stadium spring of my junior year in high school.  I fell in love with it, but it seemed to be a bit too "new" of a car for me and I never thought I would get to drive it.  On the day of my very first prom, my parents decided to randomly drive around town with Marc, who the saint that he was came from Ohio as a college sophomore to go to prom with me.  I thought it was weird that my parents wanted to stop in the Central parking lot, but they did and that is where I found my 2001.5 Passat.  I couldn't believe it.  I was so excited about the blue and red interior lights that my dad said reminded him of an airplane cockpit.  I just honestly couldn't believe it was mine.  (Of note is that prom happened to fall around my birthday AND my first car was a lemon, so we were looking for a different one!)

My car made it through high school, carpooling my little sister and our neighbor Katie Gehrki. Then is was off to Davidson and it drove quite a few times across Tennessee to and from North Carolina.  We had many fun road trips together and shared some good miles.  Each summer I packed it to its brim to come home, or wherever I was headed for the summer.  It lived outside, always hoping for the closest parking spot to my dorm.  At some point, ants decided to make it their home too and I had to take it to get them out!  It rode the streets of Charlotte, dealing with all the traffic on I-77 and I-85, to Lake Norman and many trips to Starbuck's and Sonic.  I loaded it up one last time from Davidson in December of 2006 to head home--it had seen me through college.  Next, on to medical school living in the horrible student parking lots and late hours spent in the library. Then it was the car we drove away from after our wedding (picture above--the only one I could find on my husband's computer!). We formed some great memories together and it was always reliable, and provided great entertainment and a great ride.

Not to say that I don't love my new car because I do, but after nearly 9 years of my bond with my Passat, I am still sad and sincerely hope that it finds a new, very friendly, loving home.  Perhaps a high school student who it will see off to college and maybe even all the way through college as well.  I will never, ever forget my silver Passat.  Thanks for the great memories!! (thanks to you, for reading!)

Decisions

In case some of you are wondering why the description of my blog talks about making some of life's first major decisions, I thought I'd explain.  I'm sure some of you have wondered..."hmm..she's 25 been to college, gotten married, and is nearly done with medical school and just now is making big life decisions?" Well, honestly that is really how I feel.  I don't think I had the option of foregoing college.  I don't even remember being asked, "what are you doing after high school?" but rather "where are you going to college?"  The decision of where to go to college was also really easy.  I found a place (Davidson College), loved it and applied early and got in.  I didn't even apply anywhere else, so that made the decision easy (and the fact that applying early was a binding agreement).  It turned out to be the best place for me.  It was perfect--I was surrounded by wonderful people and had amazing opportunities presented to me.  In fact, I still believe that my alma mater continues to give me opportunities, particularly during these residency interviews.  I love Davidson and wish I could go back!

Getting married....also an easy decision!  Marc and I started dating when I was 15 and I knew very early on  that Marc and I would get married, it was just a matter of when.  8 years later, we got married!

Medical school, also an easy decision.  From the time I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to be a doctor.  Even after changing my major from biology to political science, I knew I'd still get to medical school.  I received only one interview and one acceptance.  The only decision that I had to make regarding medical school was whether to go straight from college to med school or to get my MPH first.  I really based that decision on the great Davidson friends that would be in my medical school class, and turns out that was a great decision. I have such great classmates and am very glad to be at this point in my life.  I still want to get that MPH, but I can do that at some point.

I feel very blessed to not have struggled with many life decisions yet, but now I guess my time is coming!  We (being all of my classmates) are beginning or completing our rank lists for residency program.  We have now all completed our interviews and now have to rank the programs we liked the best.  For me that means not only finding the program that best fits my needs for training, but also that is in a city where Marc and I can make our home for the next four years.  The whole process isn't quite the decision that most make when getting their "first job."  I make my rank list, the programs rank their applicants, and then where we match is where we end up, so again, I am somewhat dodging the decision bullet!

More decisions will certainly come our way as this process continues.  I guess I am finally entering the adult world after putting it off with 8 years of school!  I know that Marc and I will end up in the place where we are supposed to be.  I have learned that God's plan is most certainly purposeful even if we can't understand it at the time, so I will trust in Him to lead us to the perfect place, but thoughts and prayers would be much appreciated!  Thanks for reading this long post!

Half Birthdays

Half birthdays have always been a big deal in my family, thanks to my wonderful mom!  For every half birthday, at least from the time I can remember until I left for college, my mom made each of us "half" a cake.  As a child, I often wondered how my mom could make only have of a cake, but I eventually found out that either she would hide the cake (if it was a bundt cake) or she would make a sheet cake and cut it in half and stack it.

Once I got to college, I couldn't have the homemade cake, so my mom would often order me a cake to pick up at a local bakery.  My half birthday is November 1, so they were often right at Halloween and were appropriately themed.  I think rather than tell the bakery that it was my 1/2 birthday, she pretended like it was for Halloween and then told me happy 1/2 birthday.

This tradition has been picked up by some, including my friend Aisling, who somehow convinced friends while she was studying abroad in England, that it was an American tradition for people to buy half pints on someone's half birthday.  Now that she has returned to England to live on a more permanent basis, I wonder if she is still sticking to her "American" traditions!

Recently, on January 27th to be exact, my youngest (as of this very moment) nephew had his very first 1/2 birthday, so I thought it was appropriate to celebrate and mark the occasion, and perhaps even to start a trend in the Doose family.  I baked my little Dean a 1/2 birthday cake.  Obviously being 6 months old he couldn't eat the cake, but the adults enjoyed any excuse to have a cake.  Here's a picture of my entirely from scratch cake.  I thought it might topple over!